This interview on Shacknews.com talks with Jason Kim, producer of RAGE, id's upcoming first-person shooter (which may well make this the first game from id Software that actually has someone with that title attached to the project). A topic that gets a lot of discussion is the decision that the game will have a cooperative multiplayer mode, but no competitive mode, which is a twist for the company that coined the term "deathmatch." Here's part of Jason's explanation:

So when we were pushing on the story, we thought, "People really love co-op; we love co-op." We don't want them to play the entire campaign with a buddy because you're just playing the same thing again with just another guy. And some people like that; some people are going to ask for that, and when this comes out they're going to say why didn't you make campaign mode completely playable with a co-op buddy? The reason why we did that is because there are nice story pockets for the co-op online experience; we call it Legends of the Wasteland.

This almost came about opportunistically because we knew we wanted to do co-op. So while we're putting this thing together and iterating through it we thought, "We should use these story elements because it's really interesting. It's a tall tale." You're being thrust into this little nugget of the story, and there are set parameters. We know what they did, but it was a legend. So now you're playing that role. You're not playing the story of the single-player campaign but it's something that complimented your success through the single-player campaign. So you're seeing what the other side was like. It's almost like when Valve came out with Blue Shift and you were able to play the police force.

Matt Chat 100 offers the third and final installment in Matt's Skype chat with Scott Miller, talking with the 3D Realms cofounder about Max Payne, the future of gaming, how he plans to live forever (really), among other things. Thanks Ant.

Update: Thanks for all the interest in the giveaway, but our supply of beta keys is finally exhausted. We may know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, but there seems to be no way of knowing just how many beta keys we have for Age of Empires Online. Suffice it to say, we still have a big pile of them, even after handing out hundreds already. If you are interested in checking out the MMORTS game and are willing to use Games for Windows LIVE to do so, reply to this thread and we will send along a beta key. Update: Thanks for all the interest in the giveaway, but our supply of beta keys is finally exhausted.

After a while yesterday MrsBlue realized her fears she was suffering from conjunctivitis were exaggerated, and she was just suffering itchy eyes, probably from allergies. That worked out well, as it allowed us to carry out our plans to head north for the day to belatedly celebrate our niece's recent sixth birthday. We had quite a pleasant little party, and a good time was had by all, including our pups, who we brought along.